Startup Candle Company is Overwhelmed and Confused

Starting and growing a small business can be challenging, especially when you’re juggling product creation, marketing, and everything in between.

In this episode of the Grow with Evergreen podcast, we spoke with Jo, the founder of Ralph’s Orchard – an eco-friendly, vegan candle company.

Jo shared her experiences as a start up and we discussed a digital marketing strategy to take her business to the next level.

Here are some key foundations for any start up looking to scale.

1. Focus your brand positioning

One of the first pieces of advice we give any new business is to define its unique selling proposition (USP). Ralph’s Orchard uses sustainability to stand out, highlighting their process of repurposing vintage vessels to make candles, but this wasn’t communicated consistently across their website and marketing materials.

If you want to differentiate your brand or products from your competitors, the first step is to identify your core brand message and ensure it is reflected consistently across all touchpoints – from your website to product descriptions to your paid ad copy.

2. Optimise your website for SEO

In our discussion, Jo told us she was struggling with organic traffic after experiencing a drop in domain authority.

Organic SEO is a long term growth strategy, but done well it will complement other paid channels of your digital marketing mix.

To ensure you are maximising your SEO strategy:

– Use Google Search Console to understand how people are finding your website
– Ensure each page clearly states what it is and who it’s for
– Create in-depth, valuable content around core topics related to your products and services

We encourage all businesses to conduct some keyword research using Google Search Console to help understand the search terms customers are using and then taking this information to create an engaging, informative content strategy focused on providing the best information on your niche topics.

3. Refine your Google ads strategy

Our guest Jo was running multiple Performance Max campaigns on a limited budget. While this is a sensible approach, letting Google determine the best times, and platforms on which to serve your ads, we always suggest to clients that they diversify their paid ads activities and don’t put all of their eggs in the Performance Max basket.

To ensure you aren’t over reliant on this one set of ads, consider:

– Consolidating campaigns to maximise budget efficiency
– Setting up ad schedules to target peak buying times
– Refining audience signals and product feeds

Google Ads can be complicated, review your Google Ads account structure and settings to ensure you’re making the most of your ad spend.

If you are a home and garden brand that needs help with a paid media and marketing strategy, we can help.

Download our paid media and marketing sector report here. 

It is packed full of insight, comment and straightforward advice to help boost traffic and sales.

4. Don’t neglect retargeting

While many brands use Google’s retargeting functionality, a better strategy would be to use paid ads across social media platforms like Meta and Instagram to create what we like to call ‘interruption marketing’ campaigns.

Implementing retargeting across multiple platforms in this way can keep your brand top-of-mind for potential customers even when they leave your website.

5. Focus on adding value, not just selling

Perhaps the most important piece of advice for start up brands is to shift focus from trying to optimise for Google to genuinely providing value for customers.

By creating truly helpful and inspiring content around your product or services and your core brand messages you can build authority naturally.

Regular, informative content can educate, inspire, and add value for your target customers beyond just your product listings.

The road to £50K and beyond

By implementing these strategies consistently, our guest on the Grow With Evergreen Podcast Jo has a clear path to reaching her goal of £50,000 in annual revenue and beyond.

The key for any start up business is to stay focused, provide genuine value, and make incremental improvements across all aspects of the business.

Are you a small business owner looking to grow? Which of these strategies do you think could have the biggest impact on your business? Let us know in the comments!

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